The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoevski

First published:Besy, 1871–72 (English translation, 1913)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Psychological realism

Time of plot: Mid-nineteenth century

Locale: Russia

Principal Characters

• Stepan Verhovensky, a provincial patriot and mild progressive
• Pyotr, his nihilist son
• Varvara Stavrogin, a provincial lady and Stepan’s employer
• Nikolay, her son
• Marya, Nikolay’s wife
• Shatov, the independent son of one of Varvara’s serfs
• Alexey Kirillov, a construction engineer
• Anton Lavrentyevich G-v, the narrator

The Story

Stepan Verhovensky, a self-styled progressive patriot and erstwhile university lecturer, is at loose ends in a provincial Russian town until Varvara Stavrogin hires him to tutor her only son, Nikolay Stavrogin. Stepan’s radicalism, which is largely a pose, shocks Varvara, but the two become friends. Varvara’s husband dies, and Stepan looks forward to marrying his friend. They travel together to Saint Petersburg, where they move in daringly radical circles. After attempting without success to start a literary journal, they leave Saint Petersburg, Varvara returning to the province and Stepan, in an attempt to assert his independence, going to Berlin. After four months in Germany, Stepan, realizing that he is in Varvara’s thrall emotionally and financially, returns to the province to be near her.

Stepan becomes the leader of a small group that meets to discuss progressive ideas. The group includes Shatov, the independent son of one of Varvara’s serfs; a liberal named Virginsky; and Liputin, a man who makes everyone’s business his own. Nikolay, whom Stepan introduced to progressivism, goes on to school in Saint Petersburg and from there into the army as an officer. However, he resigns his commission, returns to Saint Petersburg, and lives in the slums. When he returns home at Varvara’s request, he insults the members of Stepan’s group and bites the ear of the provincial governor during an interview with him. Everyone concludes that he is mentally unbalanced, and Nikolay is committed to bed. Three months later, apparently recovered, he apologizes for his actions and again leaves the province.

Some months later, Varvara is invited to visit a childhood friend in Switzerland, where Nikolay is paying court to her friend’s daughter, Lizaveta. Before the party returns to Russia, Lizaveta and Nikolay break their engagement because Nikolay is interested in Dasha, Varvara’s servant woman. In Switzerland, Nikolay and Pyotr, Stepan’s son, meet and find themselves in sympathy on political matters.

A new governor, Von Lembke, comes to the provinces. Stepan is lost without Varvara, and he visibly deteriorates during her absence. Varvara arranges for Dasha, who is the sister of Shatov and twenty years old, to marry Stepan, who is fifty-three. Dasha submits passively to her mistress’s wishes, and Stepan reluctantly consents to the marriage, but he balks when he discovers from a member of his group that he is being used to cover up Nikolay’s relations with the girl.

New arrivals in the province include Captain Lebyadkin and his disabled sister, Marya. One day, in front of the cathedral, Marya attracts the attention of Varvara, who takes Marya home with her. She learns that Nikolay knew the Lebyadkins in Saint Petersburg. Pyotr assures Varvara, who is suspicious, that Nikolay and Marya Lebyadkin are not married.

Using his personal charm and representing himself as a mysterious revolutionary agent returned from exile, Pyotr begins to dominate Stepan’s liberal friends and becomes, for his own scheming purposes, the protégé of Yulia, the governor’s wife. Nikolay at first follows Pyotr in his political activities, but then he turns against the revolutionary movement and warns Shatov that Pyotr’s group is plotting to kill him because of information he possesses. Nikolay confesses to Shatov that on a bet he married Marya Lebyadkin in Saint Petersburg.

As a result of a duel between Nikolay and a local aristocrat who hates him, in which Nikolay emerges victorious without killing his opponent, Nikolay becomes a local hero. He continues to be intimate with Dasha, and Lizaveta has meanwhile announced her engagement to another man. Pyotr sows seeds of dissension among all classes in the town. He discloses Von Lembke’s possession of a collection of radical manifestos, causes a break between Stepan and Varvara, and secretly incites the working people to rebel against their masters.

Yulia leads the leaders of the town in preparations for a grand fete. Pyotr, seeing in the fete the opportunity to bring chaos into the orderly community, causes friction between Von Lembke, who is an inept governor, and Yulia, who actually governs the province through her salon. At a meeting of the revolutionary group, despair and confusion prevail until Pyotr welds it together with mysterious talk of orders from higher revolutionary leaders. He talks of many other such groups engaged in similar activities. Shatov, who attends the meeting, denounces Pyotr as a spy and a scoundrel and walks out. Pyotr discloses to Nikolay his nihilistic beliefs and proposes that Nikolay be brought forward as the Pretender after the revolution is accomplished.

Blum, Von Lembke’s secretary, raids Stepan’s quarters and confiscates all of Stepan’s private papers, among them some political manifestos. Stepan goes to the governor to demand his rights under the law; in front of the governor’s mansion, he witnesses dissident workers who were quietly demonstrating for redress of their grievances being flogged. Von Lembke appeases Stepan by saying that the raid on his room was a mistake.

The fete is doomed from the start. Many agitators without tickets are admitted. Liputin reads a comic and seditious poem. Karmazinov, a great novelist, makes a fool of himself by recalling the follies of his youth. Stepan insults the agitators by championing the higher culture. When an unidentified agitator rises to speak, the afternoon session turns to chaos, and it is doubtful whether the ball will be able to take place that night. Abetted by Pyotr, Nikolay and Lizaveta elope in the afternoon to the country house of Varvara.

The ball is not canceled, but not many of the landowners of the town or countryside appear. Drunkenness and brawling soon reduce the ball to a riot, and the evening comes to a sorry end when fire is discovered raging through some houses along the river. Captain Lebyadkin, Marya, and their servant are discovered murdered in their house, which remained unburned in the path of the fire. When Pyotr informs Nikolay of the murders, Nikolay confesses that he knew of the possibility that violence would take place but that he did nothing to prevent it. Horrified, Lizaveta leaves to see the murdered pair, but she is beaten to death by the enraged townspeople because of her connections with Nikolay. Nikolay leaves town quickly and quietly.

When the revolutionary group meets again, they all mistrust one another. Pyotr explains to them that Fedka, a former convict, murdered the Lebyadkins to rob them, but he fails to mention that Nikolay had all but paid Fedka to commit the crime. He warns the group against Shatov and says that a fanatic named Alexey Kirillov had agreed to cover up the proposed murder of Shatov. Fedka denounces Pyotr as an atheistic scoundrel; Fedka is later found dead on a road outside the town.

Marie, Shatov’s wife, returns to the town. The couple have been separated for three years. Marie is ill and pregnant; when she begins her labor, Shatov procures Virginsky’s wife as midwife. The couple is reconciled after Marie gives birth to a baby boy, for the child serves to make Shatov happy once more. He leaves his wife and baby alone to keep an appointment with the revolutionary group, during which he intends to separate himself from the plotters. Pyotr kills him, then weights his body with stones and throws it into a pond. After the murder, Pyotr goes to Kirillov to get his promised confession for the murder of Shatov. Kirillov, who is Shatov’s neighbor and who saw Shatov’s happiness at the return of his wife, at first refuses to sign, but Pyotr finally prevails on him to put his name to the false confession. Then, morally bound to end his life, Kirillov shoots himself. Pyotr leaves the province.

Stepan, meanwhile, leaves town to seek a new life. He wanders for a time among peasants and at last becomes dangerously ill. Varvara meets up with him, and the two friends are reconciled before the old scholar dies. Varvara disowns her son. Marie and the baby die of exposure and neglect after Shatov fails to return home. One member of the radical group breaks down and confesses to the violence that has been committed in the town at the instigation of Pyotr. Liputin escapes to Saint Petersburg, where he is apprehended in a drunken stupor in a brothel.

Nikolay writes to Dasha, the servant, suggesting that the two of them go to Switzerland and begin a new life. Before Dasha can pack her things, however, Nikolay returns home secretly and hangs himself in his room.

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